Existing law, including statutory provisions and orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, as enforced by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, regulates the wages, hours, and working conditions of employees. Existing law makes it a crime for an employer to require or cause any employee to work for longer hours than those fixed or under conditions of labor prohibited by an order of the commission or to violate or refuse or neglect to comply with specified statutes on wages, hours, and working conditions or any order or ruling of the commission.

This bill would require a public or private employer to establish a workplace policy that provides employees the right to disconnect from communications from the employer during nonworking hours, except as specified. The bill would define the “right to disconnect” to mean that, except for an emergency or for scheduling, as defined, an employee has the right to ignore communications from the employer during nonworking hours. The bill would require nonworking hours to be established by written agreement between an employer and employee. The bill would authorize an employee to file a complaint of a pattern of violation of the bill’s provisions with the Labor Commissioner, punishable by a specified civil penalty.